Critic's Notebook: Best and worst so far

June 26, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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One of the best dishes of the year: Steamed escargot dumplings prepared with garlic butter and Parmesan cheese from Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's South Coast Plaza. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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One of the best dishes of the year: Roasted Colorado lamb loin at Juliette Kitchen & Bar in Newport Beach. The dish includes celery root, fiddlehead ferns, trumpet mushrooms, lamb belly and red wine. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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One of the best dishes of the year: Rhode Island steamed razor clams are offered at Marche Moderne at South Coast Plaza. Noill Prat, chorizo and celery add a tasty twist to the seafood dish. H. LORREN AU JR, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Some of the finest fries in O.C.: Belgian frites, hand-cut organic potatoes with sea salt and fresh herbs, served at Linx on Chapman Avenue in Orange, just west of the plaza. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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One of the best dishes of the year: Quest for Ramen Perfection, miso, double pork, Jon's work in progress noodles ($13) is piping hot at Playground in Downtown Santa Ana. This was version 56. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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One of the best dishes of the year: Papa's combo with ground beef taco, cheese enchilada and pork tostada is featured at El Farolito. The Placentia restaurant also offers a Junior-style (one item) or Mama-style (two item) plates. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Some of the best service in O.C. can be experienced at Florent and Amelia Marneau's Marche Moderne at South Coast Plaza. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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One of the best dishes of the year: The Cannery in Newport Beach features abolone with potato gnocchi, sweet potato, sea urchin bisque, crispy potato chips, micro celery. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Goose egg: El Corazon de Costa Mesa is reminiscent of a Mexican resort but it received zero stars from critic Brad A. Johnson. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

One of the best dishes of the year: Steamed escargot dumplings prepared with garlic butter and Parmesan cheese from Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's South Coast Plaza. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

By the numbers

Restaurant meals consumed thus far: 208

Burgers eaten: 31

French fries sampled: 78

Steaks sent back for being overcooked: 3

Incidences of food poisoning: 2

Miles driven in search of something good to eat: more than 4,500

Miles I've jogged in order to stay fit and keep eating: at least 300

Now that summer is here, I thought I'd take a moment to look back at the best and worst of my dining adventures since December.

There have been a few restaurants where service is elevated to an art: The Ranch in Anaheim as well as Capital Grille and Marché Moderne in Costa Mesa.

In the course of dining out eight or nine times a week, it's inevitable that I'll encounter a few stinkers. I recently wrote about my misadventures at El Corazon de Costa Mesa, where after multiple visits I just couldn't find enough reasons to recommend it to readers. I still scratch my head when I think of the horrid mac 'n' cheese (I called it mac 'n' milk) at Rok Prime Steakhouse in San Juan Capistrano.

I endured a truly lame experience I wish I could take back at Nieuport 17 in Tustin, where I was given toasted day-old baguette slices for the bread service and I picked at the worst Caesar salad in history, with a dressing whose primary flavor was water. The gloppy osso buco might very well have been left over from the day before, or even more likely the day before that. My waiter there rarely showed up.

And speaking of absentee waiters, the service was worse at Mastro's Steakhouse in Costa Mesa, where I literally had to get up and walk around the restaurant to try to find our waiter – and this is at a place where I was paying nearly $200 per person for dinner? C'mon. I'll never go back, even though the steaks were some of the best I've found in Orange County.

I'll never forget the astoundingly sticky, gross, dirty tables at Landmark in Corona del Mar, a restaurant that turns into a bottle-service nightclub as the night progresses. And I still don't understand how a restaurant as otherwise chic as Charlie Palmer can allow its bar scene to become so rowdy, with screaming-loud sing-alongs of "Gangnam Style" overtaking the entire dining area and tainting the overall atmosphere.

I've been searching for a good chicken-fried steak, a comfort food from my childhood, but I have found nothing but truly disastrous renditions, like the wretched frozen patty at Schooner in Sunset Beach and the one at Tulsa Rib Company in Orange, where the truly awful gravy was strangely made with white wine. White wine gravy, really?

I regret ordering the brisket plate at BBQ 220. Although the brisket had a nice slow-smoked flavor, they chopped it into minuscule bits, as if I were going to make a deviled beef sandwich. Barbecue brisket, as an entree, should always be sliced. And why are they so stingy with the sauce? They don't let you pour your own. Rather, they give you one tiny ramekin at a time. Note to the staff: That's not cool, dudes.

And so the dining adventure continues. I'm looking forward to the second half of the year, to bringing more recommendations – and fair warnings – to our readers. There are still so many great restaurants to visit and new ones to discover, so many more miles to cover. Along the way, I'll keep bringing you the best and most important of what I find. And I'll keep you apprised of the occasional stinkers.

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